How to optimize dust pollution control in opencast coal mines: Analysis of a joint social regulation model based on evolutionary game theory

The carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals drive innovation in pollution governance systems, unleashing the potential of social supervisory forces to achieve coordinated governance by multiple stakeholders. In order to improve dust pollution control in opencast coal mines, this study combines prospect theory with evolutionary game theory, analyzing the evolutionary game process of coordinated governance activities of coal mining enterprises, local regulators, and social camps in the management of dust pollution against the backdrop of national supervisions. The research indicates that the perceived value of dust pollution has a significant impact on the strategic choices of the three agents involved in the game. Coal mining enterprises tend to be risk averse, and by reducing the cost of dust pollution control and increasing the additional benefits of pollution control, it can promote pollution control behavior by coal mining enterprises. Local regulators are also risk averse, but not sensitive to risk benefits. Strengthening pollution subsidy incentives and environmental fines can help promote dust pollution control behavior by coal mining enterprises. However, increasing the strength of the rewards strategy is not conducive to local regulators' own regulatory responsibilities, and environmental fines have limited binding effects. The strategic choices of social camps' supervision have a restrictive effect on the strategic choices of coal mining enterprises and local regulators, promoting the evolution of equilibrium results in the direction of maximizing social benefits. When coal mining enterprises actively governance pollution, local regulators strictly regulated, and social camps do not monitor, the system reaches its optimal equilibrium state. The research results clarify the mechanism and specific effects of social supervision of opencast coal mine dust pollution control, guide the participation of the public in dust pollution control, and regulate the behavior strategies of coal mining enterprises and local regulators, providing the scientific basis for management.

Australian fly-in, fly-out operations: Impacts on communities, safety, workers and their families

BACKGROUND

Australia's mineral, resource and infrastructure sectors continues to expand as operations in rural and remote locations increasingly rely on fly-in, fly-out or drive-in, drive-out workforces in order to become economically competitive. The issues in effectively managing these workforces are becoming more apparent with reported high amounts of turnover and concerns for safety and performance. The issues presented include a range of physical, mental, psychosocial, safety and community challenges.

OBJECTIVES

This review aims to consolidate a range of research conducted to communicate potential challenges for industry in relation to a wide variety of issues when engaging and using FIFO/DIDO workforces which includes compressed working schedule design (work schedules), working hours, fatigue, safety performance, employee wellbeing, turnover, psychosocial relationships and community concerns.

METHODS

A comprehensive literature review was performed using EBSCOhost, PubMed and google scholar, with a focus on FIFO or DIDO workforces engaged within the resources sector. Search terms were kept broad in order to capture all national and international research conducted and included: "fly-in, fly-out" "FIFO" "DIDO" "drive-in, drive-out" "mining". There was no date restriction included in the search.

RESULTS

Many of the studies were focused on sleep quality, fatigue and the influence of lowered safety performance while at work, presenting an increased risk for health and safety. These issues may be exacerbated for the FIFO workforce when linked to additional research surrounding the extended periods of absence from families influencing workers personal relationships, psychological wellbeing, job satisfaction and the reported high amounts of turnover within the industry. Taken together, this presents a unique implication for the management and continued use of FIFO workforces when considering balancing safety and performance with economic viability of production and operations.

CONCLUSIONS

The issues of long working hours, fatigue, turnover and job satisfaction are not new to the management of workers. However, FIFO workforces appear to be at an increased risk physically and mentally due to a culmination of other influences, such as extended and frequent periods of absence from friends and families which contribute to feelings of isolation and lowered psychological wellbeing. FIFO workers and their families, engage in a unique lifestyle, rarely are other workers subjected to long hours and compressed work weeks while separated or isolated from their families for extended periods of time. Recently, FIFO interest has shifted to understanding the influences on employee engagement, satisfaction, retention and safety. Considering the management of FIFO workforces from a holistic perspective incorporating all of the issues impacting on these workers may assist to ensure the challenges associated with FIFO employment are understood, addressed and communicated to workers and their families is crucial for safety and health.

Public-private partnerships in the response to HIV: experience from the resource industry in Papua New Guinea

CONTEXT

Although Papua New Guinea (PNG) has made some progress in social development over the past 30 years, the country's Human Development Index has slowed in recent years, placing it below the regional average. In 2012, the estimated HIV prevalence for adults aged 15-49 years was 0.5% and an estimated 25,000 people were living with HIV. Although reduced from previous estimates, the country's HIV prevalence remains the highest in the South Pacific region. While the faith-based and non-governmental sectors have engaged in HIV interventions since the epidemic began, until recently the corporate sector has remained on the margins of the national response. In 2008, the country's largest oil and gas producer began partnering with national and provincial health authorities, development partners and global financing institutions to contribute to the national HIV strategy and implementation plan. This article provides an overview of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and their application to public health program management, and then describes the PPP that was developed in PNG.

ISSUES

Innovative national and local PPPs have become a core component of healthcare strategy in many countries. PPPs have many forms and their use in low- and middle-income countries has progressively demonstrated increased service outputs and health outcomes beyond what the public sector alone could achieve. A PPP in PNG has resulted in an oil and gas producer engaging in the response to HIV, including managing the country's US$46 million HIV grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

LESSONS LEARNED

Given the increasing expectations of the international community in relation to corporate responsibility and sustainability, the role of the corporate sector in countries like PNG is critical. Combining philanthropic investment with business strategy, expertise and organisational resource can contribute to enhancing health system structures and capacity.

Identification of the human factors contributing to maintenance failures in a petroleum operation

OBJECTIVE

This research aimed to identify the most frequently occurring human factors contributing to maintenance-related failures within a petroleum industry organization. Commonality between failures will assist in understanding reliability in maintenance processes, thereby preventing accidents in high-hazard domains.

BACKGROUND

Methods exist for understanding the human factors contributing to accidents. Their application in a maintenance context mainly has been advanced in aviation and nuclear power. Maintenance in the petroleum industry provides a different context for investigating the role that human factors play in influencing outcomes. It is therefore worth investigating the contributing human factors to improve our understanding of both human factors in reliability and the factors specific to this domain.

METHOD

Detailed analyses were conducted of maintenance-related failures (N = 38) in a petroleum company using structured interviews with maintenance technicians. The interview structure was based on the Human Factor Investigation Tool (HFIT), which in turn was based on Rasmussen's model of human malfunction.

RESULTS

A mean of 9.5 factors per incident was identified across the cases investigated.The three most frequent human factors contributing to the maintenance failures were found to be assumption (79% of cases), design and maintenance (71%), and communication (66%).

CONCLUSION

HFIT proved to be a useful instrument for identifying the pattern of human factors that recurred most frequently in maintenance-related failures.

APPLICATION

The high frequency of failures attributed to assumptions and communication demonstrated the importance of problem-solving abilities and organizational communication in a domain where maintenance personnel have a high degree of autonomy and a wide geographical distribution.

Assessing the compatibility of the management of standardized procedures with the complexity of a sociotechnical system: case study of a control room in an oil refinery

Although the need for the management of complex socio-technical systems (STS) to be compatible with the nature of those systems is widely recognized, there are few guidelines on how to determine the actual extent of this compatibility. The purpose of this study is to assess how compatible the management of standardized procedures (SPs) is with the nature of a complex STS. To this end, a case study was made of a control room in an oil refinery, involving the following stages: (a) delimitation of the investigated STS; (b) description of the STS according to a set of characteristics of complex STS; (c) application of two types of questionnaires to thirty workers - one of them to assess their perceptions about the applicability of seven principles of SPs management in complex STS and the other to determine their perceptions about the actual use of these principles; and (d) a feedback meeting with workers to discuss the results of the assessment. The assessment is discussed in terms of its limitations, usefulness and ease of use of the data collection and analysis tools.

Potential of best practice to reduce impacts from oil and gas projects in the Amazon

The western Amazon continues to be an active and controversial zone of hydrocarbon exploration and production. We argue for the urgent need to implement best practices to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts associated with the sector. Here, we present a three-part study aimed at resolving the major obstacles impeding the advancement of best practice in the region. Our focus is on Loreto, Peru, one of the largest and most dynamic hydrocarbon zones in the Amazon. First, we develop a set of specific best practice guidelines to address the lack of clarity surrounding the issue. These guidelines incorporate both engineering-based criteria and key ecological and social factors. Second, we provide a detailed analysis of existing and planned hydrocarbon activities and infrastructure, overcoming the lack of information that typically hampers large-scale impact analysis. Third, we evaluate the planned activities and infrastructure with respect to the best practice guidelines. We show that Loreto is an extremely active hydrocarbon front, highlighted by a number of recent oil and gas discoveries and a sustained government push for increased exploration. Our analyses reveal that the use of technical best practice could minimize future impacts by greatly reducing the amount of required infrastructure such as drilling platforms and access roads. We also document a critical need to consider more fully the ecological and social factors, as the vast majority of planned infrastructure overlaps sensitive areas such as protected areas, indigenous territories, and key ecosystems and watersheds. Lastly, our cost analysis indicates that following best practice does not impose substantially greater costs than conventional practice, and may in fact reduce overall costs. Barriers to the widespread implementation of best practice in the Amazon clearly exist, but our findings show that there can be great benefits to its implementation.

[Comparative analysis of occupational health services practice of international companies of oil and gas industry and ILO Convention "Occupational Health Services"]

A comparative analysis of current work practices of occupational health services of international companies of Russian oil & gas industry and provisions of ILO Convention 161 and Recommendation 171 "Occupational Health Services" has been carried out. Proposals for improvement and harmonization of labor legislation related to this problem have been formulated.

[Evaluating efficiency of influenza vaccinal prevention among oil and gas industry workers]

Explore information about the incidence of employees of enterprises of the oil and gas industry with the influenza (SARS). The degree of influence of vaccination on the incidence of influenza, the number and structure of complications as a result of vaccination and their impact on efficiency. Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of vaccination.

Dynamics of safety performance and culture: a group model building approach

The management of occupational health and safety (OHS) including safety culture interventions is comprised of complex problems that are often hard to scope and define. Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of OHS management, the concept of system dynamics (SD) is used to analyze accident prevention. In this paper, a system dynamics group model building (GMB) approach is used to create a causal loop diagram of the underlying factors influencing the OHS performance of a major drilling and mining contractor in Australia. While the organization has invested considerable resources into OHS their disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR) has not been decreasing. With this in mind, rich individualistic knowledge about the dynamics influencing the DIFR was acquired from experienced employees with operations, health and safety and training background using a GMB workshop. Findings derived from the workshop were used to develop a series of causal loop diagrams that includes a wide range of dynamics that can assist in better understanding the causal influences OHS performance. The causal loop diagram provides a tool for organizations to hypothesize the dynamics influencing effectiveness of OHS management, particularly the impact on DIFR. In addition the paper demonstrates that the SD GMB approach has significant potential in understanding and improving OHS management.

Health, safety and environmental risk of a gas pipeline in an oil exploring area of Gachsaran

The purpose of this study was assessing health, safety and environmental risk of a gas transfer pipeline in an oily area of Gachsaran. In this method, we used the Kent's pipeline risk assessment method except that to facilitate using the method more practically some changes were exerted into Kent's method. A pipeline with 16 kilometers length was selected considering surrounding nature of the pipeline. It was divided into two sections. Analogous to Kent's method, in this method, parameters included: interested party's injuries, corrosion, design factor, incorrect operation index and consequence scoring. The difference here was that for consequence scoring we used ALOHA 5.6 software instead of Kent's pattern. Results showed that health, safety and environmental risks of section 2 (the next 13 kilometers of outgoing pipeline from gas station after the first 3 kilometers) were greater. It seems the main cause of gaining a bigger risk number was related to more activities of interested parties around section 2. Because all figures gathered from indexes are almost close to gather except third parties activity.

Occupational stress and mental health of employees of a petrochemical company before and after privatization

BACKGROUND

Many countries make many of their governmental sectors private. This transition, however, may affect their employees in numerous ways.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the level of occupational stress and mental health of employees of a petrochemical company in Isfahan, Central Iran, before and 3 months after privatization.

METHODS

Out of the 700 employees of the studied company, using a stratified random sampling technique, 140 persons were selected. We used Steinmetz occupational stress and GHQ-28 questionnaires to determine the level of stress and mental health status of participants.

RESULTS

The reliability of the questionnaires used was acceptable (Chronbach alpha coefficients: 0.85 and 0.86, respectively). Job stress level was significantly increased 3 months after privatization; the mean±SD job stress score before and after privatization were 22.9±10.43 and 28.3±12.25, respectively (p<0.001). The mean±SD mental health score after privatization (17.57±11.63) was also significantly (p<0.001) higher than that before the privatization (13.8±6.0). There was a significant (p<0.001) positive correlation between the mental health status score and job score (r = 0.476).

CONCLUSION

After privatization, the job stress of employees increased significantly. This increase was associated with a decrease in mental health. To lessen the side effects of privatization, the process should be performed cautiously.

Shift work and age in petroleum offshore industry

BACKGROUND

Shift work is associated with sleep and health problems. Tolerance to shift work is reported to decrease with age. Shift work tolerance should be considered in different shift work populations. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between age, shift work exposure, shift type, and morningness and sleep/health problems in oil rig shift workers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A total of 199 workers participated. They worked either two weeks of 12-h day shifts (n = 96) or two weeks of swing shifts (n = 103) (one week of 12-h night shifts followed by one week of 12-h day shifts), followed by four weeks off work. The workers filled out questionnaires on demographics, work, sleep, and health.

RESULTS

We found no significant associations between age or years of shift work exposure and any of the sleep, sleepiness, or health parameters. There was a significant association between shift type and sleep duration, showing that swing shift workers had longer sleep duration than day shift workers. In addition, we found a significant association between the interaction age*, shift type, and sleep duration, where sleep duration was negatively associated with age for the swing shift workers and positively associated with age for the day shift workers. There were significant associations between morningness and sleep latency, sleep efficiency, and insomnia.

CONCLUSIONS

Older workers may tolerate shift work well. Age, shift work exposure time, and shift type seemed not to affect shift work tolerance in this population. However, this may be due to a healthy worker effect and/or selection bias.

Beyond Texas City: the state of process safety in the unionized U.S. oil refining industry

The March 2005 British Petroleum (BP) Texas City Refinery disaster provided a stimulus to examine the state of process safety in the U.S. refining industry. Participatory action researchers conducted a nation-wide mail-back survey of United Steelworkers local unions and collected data from 51 unionized refineries. The study examined the prevalence of highly hazardous conditions key to the Texas City disaster, refinery actions to address those conditions, emergency preparedness and response, process safety systems, and worker training. Findings indicate that the key highly hazardous conditions were pervasive and often resulted in incidents or near-misses. Respondents reported worker training was insufficient and less than a third characterized their refineries as very prepared to respond safely to a hazardous materials emergency. The authors conclude that the potential for future disasters plagues the refining industry. In response, they call for effective proactive OSHA regulation and outline ten urgent and critical actions to improve refinery process safety.

Canada's asbestos legacy at home and abroad

Despite international efforts to block Canada's export of asbestos, the Canadian federal government continues to defend the economic interests of the asbestos industry. Ironically, Canadian asbestos miners, mill workers, and those engaged in a wide range of other occupations continue to suffer asbestos-related disease and premature death. Although there is an employer-funded compensation system in each province, many workers with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases remain uncompensated. The export of Canadian asbestos to developing countries sets the stage for another preventable occupational disease epidemic that will manifest over the coming decades. There is growing support from the Canadian labor movement for an end to asbestos exportation and for a just transition strategy for the asbestos workers and their communities.

Associations Between Self-Reported Working Conditions and Registered Health and Safety Results

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between self-reported working conditions and registered health and safety results in a petroleum company in Norway.

METHODS

We analyzed data from company surveys of working and organizational conditions in 2003 and 2004 and data from the company's files of sickness absence, personal injuries, serious incidents, and undesirable incidents in 2003 and 2004 as well as personal injuries from 2000 to 2004 using Pearson's correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analyses.

RESULTS

Good perception of confidence in management in 2003 and 2004 was significantly negatively correlated with the number of personal injuries from 2000 to 2004.

CONCLUSIONS

Management style and trust in the manager are important factors for predicting personal injuries. The company's working and organizational survey might be used as an indicator for injury risk.

Environmental policies, politics, and community risk perception: case study of community contamination in Casper, Wyoming

OBJECTIVES

We identify and explain factors that affected a community's perception of risk due to extensive industrial contamination and people's distrust of government agencies regarding the environmental investigations.

METHODS

Intrinsic bounded case study methodology was used to conduct research about extensive environmental contaminations due to activities of an oil refinery in North Casper, Wyoming, and the citizens' response. Data were collected from multiple sources that included public testimonies, observations, public hearings and meetings minutes, newspaper articles, archived records obtained from federal and state environmental and health agencies, as well as industry records obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

FINDINGS

The overarching theme that emerged was lack of trust due to several critical events and factors such as no response or delay in response time to community concerns, lack of transparency, perceived cover up, vague and fragmented communication by government and state officials, perception of pro-industry stance, and perceived unfair treatment.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

People's perception of environmental risks and their willingness to accept official explanations and outcomes of environmental investigations are strongly affected by their direct experiences with government agencies and the evidence of influence the powerful industries exert over relevant investigations. The government cannot successfully address public and community concerns about environmental health impacts of contaminations and in turn the public perception of risk unless it adopts and implements policies, procedures, and protocols that are clear, timely, transparent, and free from industry influence.

Bp'S Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline: the new corporate colonialism

An international campaign was waged questioning the benefits of BP's Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in an effort to avoid a "zone of sacrifice" there. This article is an offshoot of that effort and explains the contemporary struggle over the pipeline project. The authors describe the project's background and evaluate the actual and potential impacts of the project in which they consider eight areas. They also assess BP's capacity to confront resistance to the pipeline.

Community health outreach program of the Chad-Cameroon petroleum development and pipeline project

A critical appraisal has been presented of the CHOP for a large-scale energy infrastructure development project that was implemented in two of the world's poorest countries. The project is under close scrutiny from various independent monitoring groups, civil society organizations, and human rights groups. Reviewing the achievements and shortcomings permits the extraction of important lessons that will be critical for the future adoption of the CHOP in the current setting and for the implementation of additional CHOPs elsewhere in the developing world. The authors believe that the design must be flexible, efficient, and innovative so that a CHOP promptly can address pressing public health issues as they arise (eg, epidemic outbreak) and include the needs and demands of the concerned communities. An innovative feature of the current project is the high degree and mix of public-private partnerships. The project's CHOP also relies on partnerships. As elaborated elsewhere, public-private partnerships should be seen as a social experiment--they reveal promise but are not the solution for every problem. For this CHOP, the focus is on partnerships between a multinational consortium, government agencies, and international organizations. The partnerships also include civil society organizations for monitoring and evaluation and local NGOs designated for the implementation of the selected public health interventions within the CHOP. The governments and their respective health policies often form the umbrella under which the partnerships operate. With the increase in globalization, however, the importance and capacities of governments have diminished, and there is growing private-sector involvement. Private enterprise is seen as an efficient, innovative, pragmatic, and powerful means to achieve environmental and social sustainability. Experiences with the partnership configurations in the current CHOP are of importance for tackling grand challenges in global health by applying a systemic approach. Other innovations of the project in general, and the CHOP in particular, are the strong emphases on institutional-capacity building, integration, and sustainability. In countries like Chad and Cameroon, there are serious shortages of well-qualified health personnel. The CHOP described in this article provides leverage for initiating better healthcare that will reduce the high burden of disease in the developing world. Reducing mortality rates for infants and children younger than 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa requires massive scaling-up of malaria-control interventions (eg, large-scale distribution of ITNs to protect millions of African children), thereby approaching the Abuja targets (see Armstrong Schellenberg et al). The local NGOs that took a lead within the framework of the CHOP in the distribution of ITNs and accompanying health education messages can extend these activities to communities living outside the vicinity of the project area. Serious shortcomings of the current CHOP, consistently identified by the external monitoring groups, include the lack of a regional health plan, cumulative impact assessment, and provision of clean water and sanitation outside the narrowly defined project area. This point is of central importance, particularly for Chad, where access to clean water and improved sanitation facilities is low. Another limitation of the current CHOP is the insufficient amount of significance addressed to tuberculosis and the apparent lack of concerted control efforts against HIV infection, AIDS, and tuberculosis. These criticisms, however, must be balanced against the lack of clarity in international discourse about the proper extent of responsibility of the corporate sector for dealing with the health problems of countries in which they do business. In an elegant analysis, the environmental risk factor "unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene" was shown to be one of the major contributors to loss of healthy life, particularly in the developing world. Provision of clean water and sanitation is a key factor for sustainable control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths. Reduction of helminth infections might have a beneficial effect on the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The question still remains: What is, or should be, the scope and limits of responsibility of the corporate sector in solving these problems? There is a critical need for the monitoring and evaluation of the long-term impact of a CHOP that develops in parallel with a large development project, emphasizing the broadest possible determinants of health and well-being. To become operational, it requires the establishment and running of a longitudinal demographic surveillance system in the area and in adjacent areas that are unlikely to be affected by the project. This approach, coupled with regular household surveys for in-depth appraisal of health-seeking and asset indices, is the most promising source of data for impact measurement of health, poverty, and equity-related issues. It will facilitate subtle monitoring and surveillance activities, fostering a truly systemic approach by inclusion of all stake holders on the basis of the existing but constantly evolving system.

Applying the lessons of high risk industries to health care

High risk industries such as commercial aviation and the oil and gas industry have achieved exemplary safety performance. This paper reviews how they have managed to do that. The primary reasons are the positive attitudes towards safety and the operation of effective formal safety management systems. The safety culture provides an important explanation of why such organisations perform well. An evolutionary model of safety culture is provided in which there is a range of cultures from the pathological through the reactive to the calculative. Later, the proactive culture can evolve towards the generative organisation, an alternative description of the high reliability organisation. The current status of health care is reviewed, arguing that it has a much higher level of accidents and has a reactive culture, lagging behind both high risk industries studied in both attitude and systematic management of patient risks.